Prospective retirees usually prepare for what they thought they would need for retirement adjustment while retired ones are better positioned to evaluate adequacy of their earlier preparedness, judged by retirement reality. Will the future and the past align? This survey investigated pre-retirement guidance needs of retirement-eligible teachers, explored retroactive retirement guidance needs of retired teachers, and compared the results of the two groups. A sample (n=305; 151 prospective teacher-retirees; 154 retired teachers) was selected, while three research questions guided the study. Results showed the 16 items in the pre-retirement guidance needs are potential needs for teachers entering retirement (Item’s RSI >0.05), and the 16 items in the retrospective retirement guidance needs are areas that retired teachers opined they missed while preparing for retirement (Item’s RSI >0.05). Also, prospective retirees and the retired teachers reported dissimilar ranking in the order in which they desired retirement counselling, but they tallied in two items of needs. The findings underpin the necessity for periodically administering retirement preparedness and retirement readiness instruments on workers with a view to offering person-fit retirement counselling as they advance toward retirement.
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